Archive → December, 2008
New Years Eve Sky
This New Years Eve had an unusual night sky just after sunset. The Western sky had the moon and Venus right next to each other just after sunset. Thanks to the warmer than usual evening I was able to spend some time outside. This photo does not show the sky as nice as it was. I just thought I would share this cool site.
Last Sunrise of 2008
This morning I had planned on sleeping late since it is New Years Eve. Since I took the day off it is the beginning of a five day weekend. I went to bed around 12:30 AM last night with the intentions of just waking up on my own but I was violently shaken awake by the alarm clock at 4:45 AM. That is right, I forgot to turn the alarm off last night. I did manage to pull myself together enough to realize that it is my day off and turn the alarm off instead of just hitting the snooze button. Despite my efforts to go back to sleep they were done in vain. Sometime around 6:00 AM I gave up on this effort and got up.
I decided I would take the opportunity to take advantage of the orange coming through my window and take some pictures. This was taken December 31st as the last sunrise of the year. It was a bit chilly out there and the traffic was slow because of the New Year holiday. As I watched the sun rise in the East, I am reminded of the new beginning we were given as Jesus died for my sins and the rest of the world. As the year 2008 passes so does our past. It is time for a new day, a new month, a new year. We can put the mistakes of our past behind us and start over with a new beginning. As beautiful as this sunrise was, it pales in comparison to what Jesus has done for us.
I would like to start this new year being grateful for all that I have. I have been so blessed that it is hard to measure. Despite my failures, God has given me a wonderful family, job, home, and the means to live a decent life. As if all these things were not enough, God saw it necessary to give me a way to have my sins forgiven through Jesus’ death on the cross. I would just like to say Thank you God.
Artists Block Embedding on Youtube?
After listening to Air1 I heard MercyMe’s song “God with Us” and I was admiring the video on Youtube. I wanted to add it to my web site using the embed code that accompanies these videos. I was disappointed to find that many videos by MercyMe had this feature disabled. There was a comment in the box stating as that it has been disabled at the request of the owner. I am at a loss why they would do this when they allow their videos to be posted on Youtube to begin with. I mean every video has the Youtube logo on the bottom even when it is embedded. The link is clickable that takes the user back to the Youtube site. I did happen to notice this video shows it is from Sony BMG. I found this article on their web site about them signing an agreement and I wonder if this has anything to do with it.
I would think that allowing people embed the videos on their site would actually result in drawing more people to their site. I have found that many videos on Youtube have some rather offensive comments attached to the video. By embedding the video on an individual’s site does not display those comments on their site. I find this disappointing as I have embedded many videos on this site from Youtube in the past.
If anyone knows the purpose in disabling this function please let me know. I am sure there must be a reason whether I agree with it or not. I am just curious why they would do this.
I’m Still a PC
Am I the only one that has noticed all the Apple hysteria these days? If you turn on the television, watch any sitcom, or movie you will see everyone with a Mac. If you go onto social networking sites or blogs around the world you will find similar sentiments. This has become another follower story similar to the Google follower story of about two years ago. Remember when Google was the equivalence of the second coming of Christ? This is what is happening with Apple these days and it is almost nauseating.
Let’s have some sanity in this argument. Apple products are just plain overpriced and I refuse to use them when they continue to be that way. Even their Itunes software is not very attractive. The iPhone is off the charts too expensive and so is ANY iPod. I mean seriously… You can buy virtually any mp3 player with more storage space for 50 to 75% of the iPod price. The Apple advertising story is to say that to use a PC means that you are vulnerable to attack with virus’ worms, or any sorts of malware. The truth is that Microsoft still carries 80+% of the market while Apple only has 10%.
Think in terms of a terrorist since most virus authors are just that in their own way. If you had to blow something up and weapons were very expensive or time consuming wouldn’t it make more sense to focus on a target that would do the most damage to the most people? In other words authors of malware and the like target Microsoft because they are the most used, not because they are the least secure. This is a message that Apple will never tell you, nor will their followers. They only have the appearance of being more secure because they do not have enough market share to make cracking them worth while.
Despite the never ending barrage of attacks from the Apple loving, Microsoft haters Microsoft still makes very good products. The small exception of the initial release of Vista is hardly the rule. Microsoft Vista has actually become a very nice operating system from what they were in the beginning. This is not an attempt to attack Apple for making bad products but rather an attempt to combat some of the over zealous hysteria around their overpriced products.
Many of the people that I hear swearing allegiance to Apple are the same people that I use to hear bashing Microsoft for their proprietary ways. The ironic thing about all this is that Apple is far more proprietary than Microsoft is. They will not even allow you to use their software on hardware that they did not make. Of course this can be done but not without violating the end user license agreement (EULA). I watched four movies this weekend and everyone of them had Apple Macintosh computers on their desks. I watched a Christmas episode of House just yesterday and he was not only using a Mac but was holding an iPhone. I am not saying this is bad for a person to use their products but rather to say that Hollywood’s portrayal of Apple is that everyone uses them and everyone wants them. This is simply not true and I am one of them. I have zero desire to purchase any products by Apple and I know I am not the only one.
In all honesty I have to hand it to Apple for making some pretty good products lately and I have nothing against them other than their pricing for similar PC products. The thing that bothers me is the disproportionate love fest with their products among the tech world and Hollywood. The tech world mainly for the hypocrisy of bashing Microsoft for being proprietary while their love child Apple does the very same thing. Hollywood for their continued habits of trying to create spin while they are supposed to be entertaining. They do this all the time with their subtle hints at liberal slanted topics and social issues. Instead of just doing a performance to entertain which is what their audience wants to see they try to use this monopolistic platform to try to shape people’s minds. I guess it is no secret that I am no fan of the entertainment industry.
I have been a computer enthusiast for more than 20 years and I still love them. I am no expert with computers, rather an enthusiast that loves learning about new gadgets. I claim no expertise in any way but I have been around long enough to see how trends come and go and this Apple hysteria is just another example of groups of people following the crowd paying twice what a product is worth just because of the perceived “coolness” factor. Somehow these days it is seen to make you cool if you own a Mac despite paying a higher price for the same product. If you are in the “IN” crowd you think this makes perfect sense while those not in the “IN” crowd see it as lunacy.
An analogy that could compare would be the guy that drives down your street playing the stereo so loud that the bass shakes the dishes in your home. To the deaf guy in the car and his buddies, this is so cool that it gives them chills to see people look in their direction. To them this is the height of attention and in their eyes everyone is looking at them with envy. To the people outside the car looking in the same situation is seen with disgust. The person inside the car is looked upon as a person with not enough brain power to save his own hearing. The same situations seen from two completely different perspectives. The Apple Mac buyer walks around with his overprices Mac with chills as people glance his way. He sticks his chest out knowing that everyone that glances his way is looking upon him with envy. To all those that are in agreement with him they support his lack of budgeting skills and cheer him on. Those others “NON COOL” types look upon him with pity. They see this poor soul as one that was so caught up in pleasing his friends that he paid twice the price for a product than he had to. They get down on one knee just before bed to ask God to forgive them for they know not what they do. 
I know I know… That is a little over the top but I sometimes find that a little tongue in cheek sarcasm can be used to illustrate a point. To all my Apple friends you are in my prayers .
Another Three Day Work Week
As the weekend and year comes to a close I find myself sick with a cold for only the second time in 2008. It is ironic that after the sickly year of 2007 where I was off work sick all the time I have only missed two days of work for being sick this entire year. That being the case, I am debating whether I want to take off tomorrow if I am not feeling any better. This weekend though it has been very nice in more ways than one has ended with being sick. If I am able to make it to work tomorrow it will be another short week anyway since we are off both Thursday and Friday again. It is really nice being able to have these free days at the end of the year although it is difficult to get back into the working mode after being off so much.
Most of the people at work are scheduled to be off this week anyway so it should be quiet until January 5th. I am so blessed to have such a nice job along with a nice family. There are many people that really hate their jobs and I am fortunate to have one that I like. On January 20, 2009 I begin my last semester at the University of Oklahoma (OU). This will be a tough semester though it will be just as rewarding. My days as a Sooner are coming to a close though they say once you are a Sooner, you are always a Sooner. I am very proud to be connected to OU though it will be done in a few months. On the bright side, it will be very nice to have some free time again.
I was given some interesting news yesterday that surprised me about Google Earth and Google Maps. My dad was born in the town of Wynnewood, Oklahoma as was my brother. This is a town of about 2500 around 65 miles South of Oklahoma City. It appears that Google Maps has added their street views feature to Wynnewood. This is pretty neat as my grandmother still lives there. I can see her house from the street level. I had to check Google Earth and found that it was also on there. This was a pleasant surprise. I also noticed that Deming, New Mexico has street views. This is where many of my relatives live. I have many things I have to do before getting ready for work so I better get this posted.
Good Morning
This morning I did something unprecedented. I woke up because I had to go to the bathroom like always but this time I made myself go back to bed. I actually stayed in bed until 8:30 AM. I have a bad habit of staying up late, and then getting up early to go to the bathroom and then staying up. The last few mornings I have not slept more than four hours each night. Since I was feeling sick yesterday I thought maybe I needed some sleep. Now that I am up, I find my wife in the den watching the TV show House. Since we have to go back to work tomorrow I need to be feeling the best I can for tomorrow. I am still in a daze like I have not slept enough. I just checked the weather and found that at this early hour it is 32 degrees and headed to 54 degrees. This is great that maybe we will not stay below freezing for two more weeks like we did last few weeks.
Next week the national championship game will be on TV but I miss the old days when all the games were on New Years Day. I have hated this way of putting the games on work nights ever since they started it. Everyone says it is all about money. They say that spreading them out on many different nights will get them more viewers and more advertising money. If this is true, you would think that spreading them out on WEEKEND nights would be even better. I have to get up for work at 4:00 AM and so games that go into 11:00 PM are virtually imposible for me to watch. I wish they would go back to the old days. It was always an exciting day to have several TV’s going at once watching several games. Unless I take off work on January 9th, it is unlikely that I will be able to watch the University of Oklahoma play in the national championship game. I have already taken off four Fridays in a row and that would make it five so it is not likely that I will do it.
More AP Activism
I know I have posted many times about why I do not like the Associated Press (AP). They have clearly taken sides in the Israeli, Arab battle long ago. This willful misrepresentation of Israel’s self defense is common place. If you read this story located here you will have to go more than half way down the story before you find that Hamas has been sending rockets into Israel for eight days straight before Israel defends itself. Israel waited until more than 300 rockets were sent into their country before defending themselves. If one stumbles on this story posted on Yahoo, they would think that Israel is the agressor and being unfair. The AP does this all the time and they count on people being lazy, not reading the whole story. They count on people just skimming the headline.
The truth is that Israel has been the victim countless times and the AP and the rest of their left wing media misreport the events as though Israel is the agressor. I cannot remember how many times I have heard how some Arab terrorist blows up a bomb in Israel and by the end of the story the media is blaming the victim. They try to paint the picture that Israel is oppressing these Arabs and that the Arabs are only crying out for help. The truth is that these Arabs would have no restrictions whatsoever if they would stop blowing things up. There is not a country of Palestine and there never has been. The Jews have a historical claim on the land of Israel.
In the above picture from the Iris web site you can see the tiny Israel in blue. You can see all the Arab countries surrounding Israel and how wide spread they are. The media and the AP would like you to think that all these countries are victims of tiny Israel. The truth is that this land was given to the Jews by England and solidified by the United Nations. The nation of Israel declared their independence in 1948 and found themselves in a war the very next day. Israel has been attacked on many occasions since. Every country around them wants them dead and somehow the media would have you believe it is Israel’s fault. The land in the middle of the country namely Judea and Samaria often erroneously referred to by the media as the “West Bank” is land that was won fair and square in the Six Day War in 1967. The great city of Jerusalem is in this area. The AP would be quick to point out that Israel attacked first in this war but they will fail to mention that it was only a preemption within hours. Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon had their armies on the borders of Israel ready to attack. For any of those that think that Israel had no claim to this land, the United States won Texas in a similar way.
I really hate posting on this topic because I feel like I have to go through this history lesson over and over again. The truth is that Israel is innocent and they are at the mercy of the United States. Our country is their only protection against being destroyed. Many times our own leaders are too concerned with political correctness to address this issue with honesty. Our own leaders are putting our own nation at risk by not giving Israel our unwavering support. Let us not forget the words in Zechariah 12:3…
And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.
Christmas at the Brite’s
This morning we rose early to go to Checotah, Oklahoma to visit my father in law. We had a pretty good time there except that I was a little under the weather. Early this morning our warm weather came to an end as a cold front came crashing through. At 4:00 AM a line of severe thunderstorms came through bringing hail and high winds. We lost power three or four times. Shortly after that, the cold front came through and dropped the temperature more than 20 degrees but the sun was shining. We left at 8:00 AM to go to Checotah and eventually caught up with the storms. By the time we arrived, it was raining. Around 2:00 PM, the clouds cleared away and it was not too bad. We all enjoyed ourselves though I have had a sore throat, stopped up head, and now my ribs are hurting. I hope this clears up before I have to go back to work on Monday. In the above picture, we have Sunday and I standing in front of the house on the lower level kitchen.
We opened our Christmas presents and visited together for a while. We had a wonderful meal to eat. I was asked to help set up a home wifi system and was actually looking forward to it. My wife, looking out for me told them that I did not feel good and could not do it. Later I asked if they were ready to work on it and she told me no and we could do it another time since I was not feeling well. I did not know that my wife had spoken to her until after we started home. She is always looking out for me and helping me out. I sat in the car sending Twitter messages on my phone all the way home while Sunday drove home. As always it was a good time. We enjoyed seeing family and visiting. Unlike the portrayal in the movie Four Christmases, we actually look forward to seeing the family. Sunday has a great dad and step mom.
Last night our dog had two siezures and it really scared us. She is 15 years old and was out of control for a few minutes. That was pretty scary though she is back to normal now. Now we are home and the house is very cold since we had the heat turned off the whole time we were gone. I thought I would share how our day went and hope yours went just as well as ours did.
Christmas At My Dad’s
I just arrived home from visiting my dad’s house and we had a pretty good time. We laughed so hard that I worried for him bursting a blood vessel . In the above photo, my dad and Retha managed to pull it together enough to answer the cell phone. My dad was talking to his mom in Wynnewood. The call did not last very long because he could not stop laughing. I would love to tell you what we were laughing about but it may not be appropriate to post online. I will just tell you it was about a stunt that he did when he was a teenager. This Christmas weekend has been very good and more than a blessing.
Even Larry got into the laughing. We have always been told that laughter is good for your health and after tonight, we are all healthy enough to be marathon runners. Tomorrow we are going to go to Sunday’s dad’s house and I will make a point to post online. If tomorrow is going to be like the rest of the weekend, it will be a great time. Today was such a good day all the way around as the temperatures approached 80. The last time I checked it was 76 degrees on the day after Christmas. The house was so hot that we opened the windows and let the 30 MPH wind blow through. Our puppy dog Sandy needs some prayers though. She is nearly 15 years old and she had two siezures this afternoon. My wife was distraught over that for good reason. Since we will not be near the computer all day tomorrow, I will enable Twitter notifications on my cell phone. I will be back sometime tomorrow night though. Again, thanks for all the well wishes for our family.
Windy “BUT” Warm
I have live many places and no matter where I go they say the famous statement “If you don’t like the weather here, just wait five minutes and it will change”. Everywhere I go, people have this opinion that their weather is always drastically changing. I have found this statement to be relative to whatever the person is familiar with. This statement definately applies if you live in Oklahoma. This 26th day of December we are currently at 71 degrees and the wind is steadily at 30+ MPH from the South as you can see in the above graphic that we are in a wind advisory.
Just two days ago it was 16 degrees outside. In the past two weeks we have been as high as the mid 70’s and as low as 9 degrees. During the spring and fall months we have these cold fronts that come upon us from the Northwest and encounter our warm moist air from the Gulf of Mexico. This usually results in thunderstorms. Even tonight we are expected to have severe thunderstorms as the cold front passes through. Of course this will take away our warm weather but maybe we will get some rain. We have been so dry and have had no snow this year. Usually by now we would have had at least one snow fall. With less than a week left in 2008, we are likely to end the year with no snow.
This morning I woke up and there were many boxes and other garbage in my front lawn. I went outside and found that our neighbor across the street was a victim of the wind and had his dumpster blown over and his garbage was streaming across the street. I found myself in their yard putting their garbage back in their dumpster. Since yesterday was Christmas most people including them had much more garbage at the street. They have many extra boxes and wrapping paper that will not fit into their dumpsters. With the wind steady at 30, and gusts over 40 MPH. At wind speeds that fast anything left outside is likely to be blown away. Since my house faces the South, all the garbage from across the street finds its way against my fence or on my porch. Tomorrow after the cold front comes through we can return the favor as the wind will be coming from behind our house. Tomorrow the neighbors will be bringing my garbage back home. Usually when these cold fronts come through, the wind is just as hard as before, but just going the opposite direction. I guess there is one thing this wind is good for. Many trees around the city have had dead branches hanging from the top as a result of the terrible ice storm last year. This wind blows them so hard that some of them finally fall off. Although this is dangerous if someone is standing below, it is nice to finally get them down so they do not look so ugly. If you are interested in volunteering for garbage duty, please post your willingness to participate . Just joking.